


The Owing Yes

by OhSweetCas



Series: Destiel One-shots [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Army, Doctor Castiel, M/M, One Shot, Romance, Soldier Dean
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-01
Updated: 2016-09-01
Packaged: 2018-08-12 09:43:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7929925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OhSweetCas/pseuds/OhSweetCas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean and Castiel were a happy couple for three long years. They had their own place, a nice group of friends and both had a job they were satisfied with.<br/>Then, one day, Dean was sent to a mission in Afghanistan and there were no news from him ever since. Castiel waited, holding onto hope of one day seeing the man he loved once again, but after almost two years of burning desperation and loneliness maybe it is time to move on...</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Owing Yes

It all became so hard for Castiel. Since Dean had left to war everything Castiel had to remind him of the person he loved were pictures and memories. Three years of a relationship turned into nothing by a single word: Afghanistan. Ever since that day Castiel never heard Dean's voice, never saw his cheesy smile and wise green eyes again.

He waited for weeks, months for a call or a letter but nothing came, nothing made Cas be certain that he was still alive, only the undying hope of seeing him again. But the months turned into years and slowly Cas gave up on hoping for a miracle to happen.

Either way Cas wrote to him every week. We never sent the letters 'cause his words never seemed right and the phrases always so shallow and empty. His heart was empty; saddened.

He looked at the calendar on the wall: _24th_ _January_ _,_ Dean's birthday.

Cas sighed, the feeling of another day in that small and cold apartment reminding him of his loneliness, and walked over to the fridge slightly covered with pictures of them together and took out a liquid yogurt shutting the door and passing two fingers through a picture of them at a picnic during their first Valentine's together.

"Happy birthday, Dean." He said with a sad chuckle and popped open the strawberries flavored yogurt while walking back to the living room to pick up his paste.

He put his shoes on and glanced over the room one last time before shutting the front door behind him.

\--

"I'm getting tired of this." Charlie, Cas's colleague, grumbled taking a bite at her cereal bar staring at her phone screen. "I already called her six times. Six!"

Castiel sighed opening the file of a patient of his who was in a coma for a couple of weeks already as a consequence of a brain trauma,

"She'll call you. And if she doesn't that's because she's not interested. Just move on! You met her last week..."

"But--"

"Charlie, I'm a little busy right now. I only have more 20 minutes of my lunch break to read this." He cut her off turning the page and starting reading the list of injuries his John Doe had.

She simply huffed picking up her reports, "You're a cold stone, Castiel. That's why you're still alone."  
_No_ _,_ _I'm_ _not_ _alone_ _because_ _I'm_ _a_ _cold_ _stone_ _._ _I'm_ _a_ _cold_ _stone_ _because_ _I'm_ _alone_ _._ He thought to himself while glaring at her and made his lips into a thin line.

She got up and mumbled something about going to call her again.

Castiel looked down at the patient file again and closed it, leaning his face on the palm of his hand staring absently at the room full with some doctors and nurses calmly chatting or simply reviewing their own patient files.

He yawned, the effects of not having a good night's sleep in weeks starting to emerge, and got up to grab the medicine of the workers: a mug of coffee.

He dodged Benny's shoulder and smiled at Hannah when he felt the pocket of his white medical coat buzzing. He took out his phone and looked at the screen, it was an unknown.

He looked at it and put the phone back into the pocket, blowing a bored groan, since he doesn't pick up to unknown numbers, and resumed his walk to the coffee maker.

He politely smiled at Jessica, the new internee, while waiting for his drink to get ready. His phone caught his attention again.

He huffed, rolling his eyes, and picked up, "Hello?" Static. "Hello...?!"

More static and some cut muffled words in between, "H...o."

He gave a quick smile at the blonde girl and walked to a quieter room.

"Hello? I can't hear you. Who's talking?"

He cringed at the annoying sound, "...as... me. Lis-- home."

He looked at the screen. His signal was at its maximum, "What, I didn--" The line went dead.

Cas sighed with a strange feeling at his stomach. He could have swore he knew that voice.

The general practice doctor walked mindlessly still forcing his mind to remember the owner of that voice. He even thought of Dean but no... It couldn't have been him. Not after two and a half years on radio silence.

"What's up with you?" Another voice took Cas out of his thoughts. Gabriel joined him on his walk along the hospital's fifth floor halls.

"What?" He blinked still awaking from his daze. "Oh, I didn't see you there."

Gabriel chuckled and put a hand in his pocket taking out a sucker and giving it to a boy with long brown hair, winking at him. He was a pediatrician so he needed to find a way to break the ice with the kids. Speaking of which, he looked again at the kid and that was Luke, his next patient.

"I guess I have to go back to work, Cassie. Drinks tonight? Anna's buying!" He patted his shoulder walking backwards, "Oh and Balthazar told me to say hi." He turned on his heels and opened the door to his office inviting Luke and his mother inside.

Castiel sighed rubbing his temples. He forgot his damned coffee but his lunch break was over because he was already being called by the hospital speakers.

He cursed under his breath. His work was too stressful and tiring and everyone always seemed having time to have a personal life except him. He barely had time to sleep since he got promoted 8 months before.

And then there was Balthazar. Since Gabriel discovered Castiel's sexual orientation he's trying to get him hooked up with his French friend. Not that Balthazar wasn't nice and funny - he was! And well, wouldn't it be fancy to date an European guy! The problem was that Castiel would always love Dean no matter if he was still alive or already dead on the battlefield. He wouldn't be able to move on from that so Balthazar would only be a waste of time.

\--

**Do** **you** **need** **me** **to** **pick** **you** **up** **?** **-** **Gabriel**

**I'm** **not** **going** **.** **-** **Castiel**

**Why** **not** **?** **-** **G**

**Too** **tired** **.** **-** **C**

**You** **act** **like** **you're** **35!** **-** **G**

**I'm** **34,** **so** **...** **-** **C**

**Exactly** **! Now** **move** **your** **ugly** **ass** **to** **the** **Black** **Spur** **or** **I'll** **go** **there** **to** **fetch** **you** **up** **.** **-** **G**

Castiel bit his cheek still looking at his phone. He didn't want to go, he had so much work to do and files to read! He got a stabbing victim that needed special care because she was allergic to morphine and they weren't warned about that in time so... There was that too.  
_You_ _need_ _to_ _distract_ _yourself_ _!_ A voice said in his head and he rested his mug of hot tea on the coffee table, rubbed his hand together before turning off the TV that was merely on so he wouldn't go mad at the silence of his apartment and went to his room.

He opened the first drawer, taking out a black sweater. Then he got himself a pair of jeans and his usual black shoes. He was just going to stand there like a statue while the others would drink their asses off. Well, someone would need to drive them home, right?

He then opened the wardrobe and pushed some jackets and coats away until he reached his beloved trench coat. He had stopped wearing it a few months after Dean left because that trench was a gift of his and Cas lived through a hard time at living without Dean.

But that day he just felt like he wanted to wear it again.

He finally tried to comb his hair and washed his face. The bags under his eyes were becoming way too drastic and embarrassing and he didn't shave for almost a week.

"I go to the hospital looking like this?" He widened at his reflection. "No wonder why some of my patients are completely terrified at me." He shook his head. He wasn't going to shave now and he couldn't do anything about the bags under his eyes.

He texted Gabriel and grabbed some keys from the locksmith leaving his place until he realized those were the Impala's keys, and went back to get the keys of his Mercedes instead.

\--

"And this is for my successful surgery, today!" Crowley, the neurosurgeon's chief, chanted raising his Martini. "For a moment I thought that Alfie kid was going to die on that surgery table." He nervously laughed and another neurosurgeon, which his name was a mystery to Castiel, laughed with him.

"Well, it looked like you were messing with his brain." The same man said making Crowley to glare at him.

"I was just being throughout!" He protested and Cas rolled his eyes, turning around to see Gabriel arriving with his friend that Castiel wasn't really interested to be with at that moment.

"Cassie!" Balthazar greeted him with his accent making it sound a lot funnier and opened his arms, ready to embrace the black-haired man.

"Hello, Balthazar." He nodded and redundantly left the French hug him.

Gabriel gave him thumbs up, patting Cas's shoulder and walked away from them, leaving Castiel behind extremely uncomfortable. He separated from the hug looking around to find his colleagues but Balthazar tucked an arm around his shoulders, walking both of them to the bar.

Surprisingly enough, Balthazar convinced him to have a couple of drinks with him and soon Cas was a little alcoholized.

"Cassie--" Balthazar laughed taking a sip of his beer. "You must already know that I like you a lot." He giggled turning his stool at Cas.

He nodded, "I'm aware of that."

"And?-- you... You think that w-we could, you know--" Balthazar shuttered without losing his smirk.

Castiel smiled but shook his head, "No."

It made the man with the v-neck shirt lose his face, "Eh-Why not? You're hot and-- I'm a sexy motherfucker, right?"

"It's not that." He said. He didn't want to make Balthazar think he didn't want him because of his looks. Balthazar frowned even more confused. "I'm already taken."

"Oh! So... Where is he?" Balthazar asked and looked around hoping not to find his boyfriend there.

Castiel's expression saddened, "I don't know. I don't even know if he's alive or if he still remembers me." He looked at his drink, "The truth is I want to believe I'll see him again but I know I won't. And deep down I already know he's dead. He can't be alive, not after so many time away." He shook his head and downed the rest of his drink, the alcohol burning his throat. He coughed starting to cry, "And I'm miserable. He left to a stupid war to _defend_ _our_ _country_ but that's just bullshit! It's not a war that will defend us... That's just a stupid excuse to send men to death and call it patriotism!" He spat the words with hatred. "But do you know what hurts me the most?" Cas asked looking his friend in the eyes, "He asked me to marry him before he went and I already knew how it would end so I said _n_ o." He bitterly laughed smashing the shot glass at the counter.

That's why he shouldn't be drinking again.

"And now the son of a bitch's dead and I'm fucking stuck here writing letters and looking at old pictures, trying to pretend I can live like this for the rest of my life!" He hid his face in his hands and Balthazar rubbed his back up and down with his hand,

"I'm so sorry, Cassie. I didn't know."

Cas sobbed, "I still have the house just the way it was when he left! I still have his clothes, his vinyls and his stupid old car..." He sniffed. "I still eat pie once every two weeks and pig n' poke at Tuesday once a month because that was what we usually did." He shook his head. "I'm a walking wreck!" He sobbed harder until he suddenly just stopped and cleaned the tears off of his face. "I-- I gotta go."

Before Balthazar could protest, Castiel got up slightly stumbling and rushed out of the bar, going to his car and took off to his home.

Somehow he managed to get home alive and opened the door, kicking off his shoes. He knew it was past three already and he looked at his phone to find it dead. He didn't care to turn the lights on and simply crawled, almost tripping on something, and plunked to the couch, instantly falling asleep.

\--

 _Pain_ _._ _Arrgh_ _so_ _much_ _pain_ _._ He grumbled in his head and slowly opened his eyes only to be welcomed by the sunlight that seemed to want to blind him.

He blinked a few times, still focusing his vision and two long shapes started to form at the middle of the living room.

"Wha--" He whimpered pressing his fingers on his temples trying to stop the headache. His vision became clearer as did the two shapes. "Bags..." He said looking at them. "Wait... Bags?" He sat upright, regretting his move once he felt hammers in his head attacking his brain. "It hurts." He groaned ducking his face.

A pair of bare feet caught his attention by the corner of his eye. He slowly looked left and saw two naked bowlegs. He looked up and found the eyes he never thought of seeing again.

He gasped, "Dean!"

"Tough night?" He replied leaned against the doorframe that gives entrance to the bedroom.

Cas blinked a few times still unsure if he was either dreaming or hallucinating. He kept staring at the military in front of him. His hair was bigger - considering it was almost entirely shaved off - and at the same time dirtier but lighter. His eyes were as green as before but older, tougher and smaller. His face was tanned and his beard was bigger than Castiel's.

It took him a while to snap.

"Oh my god, Dean!" He jumped out of the couch not caring about his hangover anymore. He hugged him tight starting to cry, "Oh god, Dean. I though--" He sniffed laughing. "I thought you were dead."

Dean hugged him back, gripping his hair and ducking his face on Cas's neck, "I thought that too for a long time." He whispered tightening the hug.

"I missed you so much!" Cas cried and pulled back from the hug to kiss him.

Dean chuckled, "You should brush your teeth first. I don't want our first kiss to taste like a liquor store." He mocked and Cas smiled finding it amusing that Dean still had that taunting side of him after all that time away.

"When did you arrive?" The shorter asked while walking to the bathroom with Dean following suit.

"Around 11." He sighed. "I was hoping to see you at the airport but I guess the call was a failed mission at warning you."

Cas nodded, "Yeah, I didn't get a word." He started brushing his teeth.

"Anyway, I got here and you weren't home. I even tried to call you but it went directly to voicemail."

Castiel looked at him through the mirror and smiled. He felt dumb for doubting for a second of Dean coming back home. He was there. He was alive and he was finally home.

Dean slowly walked to him, wrapping his arms around Cas's waist, simply looking at him smiling. Little did Cas know that he was Dean's savior back at Afghanistan.

He breathed in Cas's cinnamon scent and left his corporal warmness warm him too. It was so unreal to have him on his arms again. For a moment he wondered if it was just another hallucination of his and that he still was tied up in that cell. But this felt so real, much more real that all the episodes he previously had due to solar exposure, dehydration, blood loss or fever.

Dean blinked again still finding Cas on his arms, brushing his teeth.

That was real. He was real. He was safe.

The water stopped running and Cas turned around to face him, resting his arms around Dean's neck.

"You're so beautiful." Dean blurted out almost crying. "So damn beautiful, Cas."

Cas frowned seeing Dean's eyes watering, "Dean?"

The blonde shushed him, "I'm just happy to be home, baby."

They kissed.

The moment their lips touched, every night they cried, every bottle Cas broke while drunk, every shot that Dean fired or bullet that carved into his skin, every kick, punch, stab he suffered in that cell, it all stopped mattering. It all stopped existing. They were together and that kiss, so shy, slow and soft, was the living proof that they could still be the men they were before all that. Everything that happened in between were just unhappy circumstances that they needed to bury and never think about again.

Dean caressed Castiel's cheek with his thumb and leaned his forehead on his lover's. Cas opened his eyes and locked them with Dean's. The bluest of oceans melting with the greenest of forests. They both had seen blood: Dean on battlefield and Cas on his profession at the hospital, but their eyes remained the purest of sights.

Cas's hands trailed down Dean's chest and rested them under his T-shirt, feeling Dean's bones beneath the skin. He was skinnier.

He ran his hands and slowly moved to the T-shirt's fold but was stopped. He frowned and looked at Dean who simply sighed shutting his eyes,

"Don't." He whispered. "Just... A lot of things happened, Cas. My body ain't the same it was from when I left." He explained and his voice cracked as he spoke.

"I don't care." Cas interjected shaking his head.

Dean simply sighed again, "But I do." Cas remained in silence and slid his hands down. Dean cupped Cas's face on his hands and kissed his forehead, "I'm sorry."

The blue-eyed man shyly smiled, "We have time. All that matters is that you're here with me."

Dean smiled, Cas was right. And this time they'd do things right.

"Let me take you to dinner, tonight. At some fancy restaurant with expensive food and wine." He invited Cas hugging him again.

Cas laughed. He didn't remember Dean being a fan of rich people restaurants, but hell, he'd accept everything.

"Of course."

\--

Cas was super late when he was finally ready to go to work so he simply called Gabriel saying he was feeling sick and for him to warn Metatron, the hospital's director, of his absence that day.

They were now dining at the terrace of the finest restaurant of the city. There was a small band playing some jazz music, being the city their background. The landscape was astonishing with the sea at the far end with the empty beach introducing land. The large highway before the beach was separated by big palm trees from either the beach and city. The city itself was was beautiful at night, the tall buildings and skyscrapers illuminating almost up to the sky and intimidating the smaller ones. The air was rather cold but there wasn't a cloud on the sky so the starts were the ceiling above their heads. And the people were so civilized they didn't even commented that two men were dining together on a table with a jar of roses on the middle of it.

Let's just say the thousands they were spending were being worth it.

"I feel like a monkey here." Dean scoffed and Cas laughed,

"You're the one who brought me here. I'm sorry if you don't like to wear a tuxedo."

Dean shook his head, "Not that... It's just, I'm kinda used to eat sitting on rocks or sand using my hands or at not eating at all for days. I'm afraid that I don't remember how to use fork and knife anymore." He sadly chuckled.

Their waiter came with their request - they had no idea of what were the things at the menu so they just asked the house's speciality and hoped for it to be good.

They politely smiled and thanked looking at their plates. It seemed to be meat? No, it was fish... Or was it meat?

Cas was the first giving a try at it and moaned at the explosion of flavours at his mouth. Dean decided to follow Cas and just shot his eyes open,

"This is extremely good." He gasped taking another full fork of it.

They ate in silence until Cas couldn't keep his curiosity contained anymore.

"Dean?" He got a moan as response. "What happened at... You know, Afghanistan?"

Dean stopped eating, "Cas--I don--" He coughed grabbing a napkin. "Not now."

Castiel nodded looking down at his plate, "It's just... You never gave news. You never called or wrote... It scared me. I thought you were dead or that you didn't care about me anymore."

Dean rested his hand on top of Castiel's, "I didn't say anything because it would make it so much harder for me to stay there and then--" he cut himself off, looking at the city. "--Then I just couldn't do it even if I wanted to."

Cas looked up at him and realized that something awful happened. Dean saw that Cas knew so he just decided to tell him all at once.

"I was suppose to be dead by now." He stated and Cas frowned, tilting his head, "I was caught by the enemy so I thought they were gonna put me down, but they didn't. Perks of being at a high position of the commando: instead of being executed I was made hostage and kept inside a cell for months being... Tortured... Seven days a week."

Cas covered his mouth, "How many months?"

"Cas--"

"How many?"

Dean sighed, "Eighteen." Cas parted his lips in shock and Dean kept going. "They wanted intel of our missions. They promised me a quick death if I revealed the information I had. I hold on tight, trusting my team would rescue me, for what... Eight months? But they didn't and I was almost going crazy. I was basically a dead man and I was living hell so I almost gave up, you know? If I counted the days well, eleven months after being taken I was ready to give up and have a nice death but then--" He paused seeing Cas crying. "Then I remembered that a certain person owed me a 'yes' and I wasn't going to go down without that yes. So I resisted some more months until I found a way out and ran like hell until some soldier found me and took me to Gen. Singer. A couple of months later I was sent home. And here I am." He smiled trying to hide the pain of reliving those days and squeezed Cas's hand.

Castiel widened in acknowledgment: he was that certain person!

Dean got up and walked to the other side of the table kneeling down in front of the man that gave him the strength he needed.

The other tables, seeing the scene, fell into silence expectant.

Cas started crying harder and Dean smiled pulling out a small squared box from his pocket - the same box from two and a half years before - and slowly opened it while saying,

"Castiel James Novak, do you want to be the Sherlock to my John, the Bucky to my Steve?" He asked remembering the names of the couples that Jo had told him that afternoon on phone that Castiel 'shipped'.

He still didn't know what that word meant but that wasn't important at that moment.

He stood there in silence along with the rest of the people dining around them waiting for Cas's answer.

The man with the eyes of ocean sniffed laughing, "Yes, oh god, yes! A thousand times yes!" He got up pulling Dean up with him.

They kissed passionately as the other tables cheered with claps, _awes_ and laughter.

"I love you, angel." Dean whispered between their kiss.

Cas grinned, "I love you, assbutt."

 


End file.
